China has no plans to ban Bitcoin

[silverston]

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/peoples-bank-china-suppress-discriminate-bitcoin/

Any thoughts on this?

[Apostata]

There are some other threads here and on reddit about this. Basically, the Official is the head of statistics (according to Bloomberg).  Some call him head of "surveys" whatever that means.  Bottom line he is not someone who dictates policy regarding the financial industry, he's merely an analyst (or head of analysts)

The particular bitcoin question was asked by a Japanese reporter at the end of a 2 hour +\- conference, and he gave a response that was not clear by any means, seemed sort of a dodging of the question to be honest. He went on and on about how bitcoin cannot be a currency etc.  He seemed to be careful with his words, not saying much either way.

Here is the reddit thread about it

http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/1v9ev7/an_official_statement_from_chinese_officials/

Bottom line, I think a lot of people are waiting with a lot of anticipation for what China is going to do next, hence the lack of major movement recently. Any news that comes out is analyzed a million times for any hint of what direction the market will go, and this little blurb from a relative nobody isn't telling us anything. 

[GigaCoin]

sure, but they r going after infrastructure which amounts to the same thing

[pbody]

“we don’t want to suppress or discriminate against Bitcoin, we are simply saying it is not a currency”

LOL

[Sindelar1938]

Wait and watch
The grapevine is that major announcements due in feb
Fingers crossed

[the_sunship]

they won't ban it because they can't, but they will probably arrest anyone using it - that they can do.

[T.Stuart]

they won't ban it because they can't, but they will probably arrest anyone using it - that they can do.

They are not going to arrest people. They will just control the flow of money via the channels they can watch. They may make limits on how much can be purchased per person per year. That kind of thing.

[ElectricMucus]

Do you guys have a reading impairment?

[MAbtc]

Sheng: “Bitcoin is merely a utopia for technology supremacists and absolute liberalists.”

I never caught that. That's not comforting.

[Nagle]

Anyone who read that as "China has no plans to ban Bitcoin" is engaging in wishful thinking. Read the actual text from the press conference.

Google automatic translation:

Q: Japanese public television:

There is a question about bitcoin, as China's central bank on Bitcoin development in China how to treat? Do you think bitcoin will bring what risks? The Chinese government should prohibit the use of bitcoins it?

A: Shengsong Cheng:

About Bitcoin problems, the People's Bank and other five ministries jointly issued a notice, I would like to emphasize, first, we propose, is not the true meaning of bitcoin currency. Second, we prompt the Bitcoin risk and made the request.

Bitcoin is a specific virtual goods. What I understand is called money? The first is the medium of exchange currency is widely accepted by society as a whole medium for the exchange of commodities. Monetary developments in the history of thousands of years, once the physical currency, the final form of physical currency is gold and silver. Like Marx said natural gold is money. The most essential characteristic of money is a medium of exchange and measure of value. Itself to be valuable, so it can be denominated. Since gold production is limited, it can not meet the growing social and economic development, so the gold standard collapsed. From the later seventies of last century, the world monetary credit system completely behind monetary credit system is a powerful force of national credit and forced the country, so we put the national currency, credit currency called legal tender.

We take a look at Bitcoin, Bitcoin is not having the characteristics of these currencies? As far as I know, the vast majority of countries do not recognize the Bitcoin currency status. Currency in circulation in addition to the media, the value of scale functions, there is a very important function is denominated instruments. Bitcoin itself is not denominated in the currency, nor as the quote currency is possible. Plunged wild speculation "currency" can be used as currency it? Bitcoin transactions for good, good investment, you need to pay attention to its risk. People's Bank and the relevant departments will continue to focus on the movements of Bitcoin and associated risks, strengthen the monitoring, analysis, and guide the public to establish a correct concept of money and investment philosophy. Thank you.

Key points here are 1) he refers back to the PBC notice on Bitcoin policy. That's the official position - banks, money transfer services, etc. can't be involved with Bitcoin. He's not indicating any change from that. And 2), the PBC is watching, monitoring, and will "guide the public to establish a correct concept of money and investment philosophy". China has serious capital controls. "Guidance" means telling (not asking) people to do or not do something. If further restrictions are needed, the PBC is ready to make them.

[aminorex]

If bitcoin were a currency, it would be strictly regulated.  Classifying it as a commodity allows Chinese nationals to trade in it.

[T.Stuart]

I can't believe the hold that China has on so many of you.

The illusion is two-fold:

1. A significant proportion, perhaps a majority, of people on this forum really believe that 31 January is going to be some kind of apocalypse - a mega-crash; a mega-dump of Chinese bitcoins on western exchanges; a giant panic sell; etc.

2. Also significant, but perhaps slightly smaller, are the proportion of those who really believe that this could permanently cripple Bitcoin, as if we are going to pass from the Golden Age of bitcoin into some kind of degraded era.

Point 2 is clearly utterly without substance.

IMO point 1 is highly unlikely to materialize. The Chinese government wants a particular level of control. They are working towards that quickly. As for the mega-dump it will not happen. Things will go more or less sideways until more and more of those waiting for the crash realize it isn't going to happen. A tipping point will occur within the waiting crowd and the price will being to rise again.

[Apostata]

I can't believe the hold that China has on so many of you.

The illusion is two-fold:

1. A significant proportion, perhaps a majority, of people on this forum really believe that 31 January is going to be some kind of apocalypse - a mega-crash; a mega-dump of Chinese bitcoins on western exchanges; a giant panic sell; etc.

2. Also significant, but perhaps slightly smaller, are the proportion of those who really believe that this could permanently cripple Bitcoin, as if we are going to pass from the Golden Age of bitcoin into some kind of degraded era.

Point 2 is clearly utterly without substance.

IMO point 1 is highly unlikely to materialize. The Chinese government wants a particular level of control. They are working towards that quickly. As for the mega-dump it will not happen. Things will go more or less sideways until more and more of those waiting for the crash realize it isn't going to happen. A tipping point will occur within the waiting crowd and the price will being to rise again.

As for your point #1, if "A significant proportion, perhaps a majority, of people on this forum" think something negative will happen on or around the 31st, wouldn't you think that that thinking itself could bring a panic sell, with so many people wanting to head to cash before the 31st?

And dont count out point 2.  Nothing is really being said about what is going on with Huobi right now.  With their leverage platform, everyone there is playing the market.  With the volume they have created through this leverage and potentially artificial data, and 74% of the global bitcoin volume, if they get shut down or worse, everyone there loses everything, it could seriously hurt bitcoin. We should be working together to stop exchanges from controlling the market the way they are.

[N12]

Personally, I think we should be working together to create 10 more Huobis.

[Denton]

guide the public to establish a correct concept of money and investment philosophy

This social engineering attitude really pisses me off.

[Apostata]

Personally, I think we should be working together to create 10 more Huobis.

10 more Huobis would make sure one exchange doesn't control so much of the volume.  If China shuts down Huobi tomorrow what would that do to the price?  And there are many reasons for China to do so; using personal bank accounts for the transferring of corporate funds; operating a money loan service without appropriate licensing, or a money transmitter service without a license (I assume they don't have the proper licensing), or their bank simply doesn't want to piss off the government anymore and closes their account.

Bottom line: this leveraged BTC trading offered by huobi is dangerous in this climate.

[shmadz]

Anyone who read that as "China has no plans to ban Bitcoin" is engaging in wishful thinking. Read the actual text from the press conference.

Google automatic translation:

Q: Japanese public television:

There is a question about bitcoin, as China's central bank on Bitcoin development in China how to treat? Do you think bitcoin will bring what risks? The Chinese government should prohibit the use of bitcoins it?

A: Shengsong Cheng:

About Bitcoin problems, the People's Bank and other five ministries jointly issued a notice, I would like to emphasize, first, we propose, is not the true meaning of bitcoin currency. Second, we prompt the Bitcoin risk and made the request.

Bitcoin is a specific virtual goods. What I understand is called money? The first is the medium of exchange currency is widely accepted by society as a whole medium for the exchange of commodities. Monetary developments in the history of thousands of years, once the physical currency, the final form of physical currency is gold and silver. Like Marx said natural gold is money. The most essential characteristic of money is a medium of exchange and measure of value. Itself to be valuable, so it can be denominated. Since gold production is limited, it can not meet the growing social and economic development, so the gold standard collapsed. From the later seventies of last century, the world monetary credit system completely behind monetary credit system is a powerful force of national credit and forced the country, so we put the national currency, credit currency called legal tender.

We take a look at Bitcoin, Bitcoin is not having the characteristics of these currencies? As far as I know, the vast majority of countries do not recognize the Bitcoin currency status. Currency in circulation in addition to the media, the value of scale functions, there is a very important function is denominated instruments. Bitcoin itself is not denominated in the currency, nor as the quote currency is possible. Plunged wild speculation "currency" can be used as currency it? Bitcoin transactions for good, good investment, you need to pay attention to its risk. People's Bank and the relevant departments will continue to focus on the movements of Bitcoin and associated risks, strengthen the monitoring, analysis, and guide the public to establish a correct concept of money and investment philosophy. Thank you.

Key points here are 1) he refers back to the PBC notice on Bitcoin policy. That's the official position - banks, money transfer services, etc. can't be involved with Bitcoin. He's not indicating any change from that. And 2), the PBC is watching, monitoring, and will "guide the public to establish a correct concept of money and investment philosophy". China has serious capital controls. "Guidance" means telling (not asking) people to do or not do something. If further restrictions are needed, the PBC is ready to make them.

I un-bolded what you bolded, and instead bolded what I consider the most important part. What they understand as "money" is exactly what bitcoin is, or what it has the potential to become.

Governments don't get this. And once they do, then it will get exciting.

*edit* many thanks to Nagle for bringing this to my attention. Upon re-reading my post, it seems I came off a bit antagonistic. I simply wanted to illustrate that stuff can be spun any way you want to spin it.